Music 220 - TOPICS/WORLD MUSIC: W. AFRICA

Topics course.: This course concentrates on the lives and music of selected West African musicians. Departing from ethnographic approaches that mask the identity of individual musicians and treat African societies as collectives, this course emphasizes the contributions of individual West African musicians whose stature as master musicians is undisputed within their respective communities. It examines the contributions of individual musicians in the ever continuous process of negotiating the boundaries and identities of African musical practice. Musicians covered this semester include Akan female professional singers in Ghana; Youssou N'Dour (Senegalese musician) and Babatunde Olatunji, the late Nigerian drummer. The variety of artistic expressions of selected musicians also provides a basis for examining the interrelatedness of different African musical idioms, and the receptivity of African music to non-African styles.

Topic: Master Musicians of Africa 1: West Africa.